My Nonprofit Reviews

Cathy20

The Wildlife Center of Virginia probably started out as all wildlife rehab centers did - with a small site staffed by a small number of dedicated and unpaid volunteers working together to save the lives of all wildlife in their area. I have personally worked for a nonprofit organization in the past and have found myself working longer that my old paying job, sneaking money from my own wallet for ...extra expenses, and feeling really fulfilled in doing so. The WCV last year became something special to a lot of people all over the world when they took in the Norfork eaglets after their mother was killed by a airplane nearby. They were pretty big eaglets, but not old enough to fly or fend for themselves. One parent is not enough to feed and take care of 3 eaglets. Little did the WCV know what they were getting into! The following of this family was worldwide through a cam installed at their nest and watched lovingly, watched to learn, and watched to see this family produce another brood of eagles that would soon leave the nest. They soon found out, thought, how much they were appreciated as thousands of people contacted them wanting to know how they were doing, did NV have enough to eat today, were the threesome making progress toward flying, and how and when were they to be set free. It became obvious the best course of action was to set up a cam at the Wildlife Center of Virginia so these answers could not ony be told, but seen. The WCV became famous overnight, and dug deeper in their pockets to bring these eaglets to a web channel for everyone to see. It would be nice to believe that all good work reeps rewards, but we all know that is not true. The rewards came from individuals, from the airline company who took responsibility for killing Mom Norfork and raised money to build and fund new flight pens for these 3 eaglets, and from local companies. I don't believe the Center particularly wanted this publicity, but it did lead to fundraisers and finally $20,000 from the Chase Rare Life Award. With this reward and the increase in size of the Center, they were able to buy better equipment to treat these various animals, to be more successful, to teach more vetinary interns, and the list goes on. With all this new equipment and abilities to treat wildlife, their success rate and reputation rose to the highest limits. They are now, I would say, the pioneer in their field and this increase in education has now made them the "go-to" center for help with difficult cases and more wildlife being saved all over the world. At first they did not want nor ask for this status, but soon learned it gave them more and more to give to the wildlife we share his earth with.